Heat-tight and air-tight closing device for doors



Aug. 2s, 192s.

A, C. F. RATHKE HEAT TIGHT AND AI TIGHT CLOSING DEVICE FOR DORS l Filed July 12,

192e 2 sheets-sheet 1 Fig. 2

@uw fw Aug. 28, 1928.

A. c. F. RATHKE HEAT TIGHT AND AIR TIGHT, CLOSING DEVICE FOR DOORS Filed July 12, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 the upper and lower door si Patented Aug. 28, 1928.

UNITED STATES l 1,682,091 PATENT OFFICE.

.ALFRED CAB-L FRIEDRICH um, F LEIPZIG, GERIKANY, ASSIGNOB TO KHL- TBANSIT-V'EBKEHBSPAXTIENGESELLSCHAFT, OF LEIIZIG, GERMANY.

HEAT-TIGHT AND AIB-TIGHT CLOSING DEVICE FOR DOORS.

Application led July 12, 1926, Serial No. 121,995, and in GermanyIuly 29, 1925.

Doors for refrigerator cars, cold stores are, as at these no automatic adjusting is possible and the door gets very soon leaky at the hinged side and at a portion along I to obtain along the entire contour of the door a uniformly increased pressing depth in accordance with the gradual compression of the packing material.

According to the invention no such special latching elements are required as, in

2'- opposition to the closing devices of known type the door is made air-tight and heattight by enlarging the contact surface of the door wing in the direction towards the hinge sides, this surfaceenlarging being controlled accordingly.

The improved closing device utilizes, with this object in view, besides a latching bar of suitable construction and besides the elements upon which this bar acts, only those portions of the door which must normally exist, i. e. the door wings and their hinges. The door is pressed. on along its contour. by means of the latching bar, for the opera- .tion of which one single manipulation is suiiicient and which causes a displacement of the door wings in lateral directions so that the necessary packing and the automatic re-adjusting of the pressing depth is obtained in the simplest manner,

.An embodiment of the invention inits application to a. double-wing hinge-door for a refrigerator ear is shown, by way of'example, in the accompanymg drawing, in

, which Figs. 1 to 5 show the unlatched door in Fig. 1 in front elevation and in Fig. 2 in plan View. l

Fig. 3 shows the position of the hinge.

Fig. 4 is a section through the upper door sill and lig 5 is a sect-ion through the lower door s1 Figs. 6 to 10 show the door in latched state in Fig. 6 in front elevation and in Fig. 7 in plan view.

Fig. 8 shows the position of the hinge Fig. 9 is a section through the upper door sill and .1F ig. 10 is a section through the lower door s1 The closing device consists of a latching rod 1 having at the top end two latching rollers 2 fixed by a bolt, a latching wedge 3 near the lower. end and two wedges 4 on the central parts. A double wedge 5 on the upper door frame is designed to cooperate with the rollers 3. On the lower door frame a roller 6 is fixed (Figs. 5 and 10) which is designed to guide the lower wedge 3. On eac-h door wing a pushing roller 7 is fixed by a bolt and bow (Figs. 1 and 6) and designed to transmit upon the door wings the forces exerted by the pushing wedges 4. In order to avoid, as much as possible, any friction from sliding the pressures exerted by the latching rod 1 are transmitted by rollers instead of by sliding surfaces. The latching rod 1 can be moved up and down by means of the hand lever 8 and the lever 9. To guide the latching rod 1 as much as possible without friction it has slots 10 (Figs. 4 and 9) with which engage guides 11. These guides 11 are pivotally mounted in guide blocks 12 and they are designed to transmit upon the door wing on which they are fixed the pressing on pressures which are produced at the middle. The hinges 13 on the door wings are of oval cross section (Fig. 3) the axes of the ovals of all the door hinges standing at the same acute angle a with regard to the plane of the door so that the open side of the angle is turned towards the latching rod 1. (Figs. 3 and 8).

To close thedoor the rod 1 is pressed downward by means of the handle Sand leverv 9 whereby the pushing wedges 4 are made to pass along the pushing rollers 7, the rollers 2 along the double wedge pieces 5 and the wedge surface 3 along the rollers 6. At this occasion two movements take place: the wedges 4 push first the door wings I'through the intermediary of the rollers 7 in Y the direction of the arrows (Fig. 7) the one away from the other in lateral directions so that the surface of the door wings which fill the door frame is enlarged. Theppackings 14, 15 and .16, 17. slide thev one on the other Without pressure. vThe door wings are guided, at this occasion. in the oval hinges 13. As the axes of the ovals are inclined at an acute angle u. towards the direction of force indicated in Figs. 7 and 8 by an arrow not only the door wings are pressed against the lateral packings 18 of the door frame but the packings 19 of the door wings are also strongly pressed against the packings 20 of the door frame. securely latched at ythe ends where the hinges are. The latching rod 1 presses then by means of the 'u per and lower latching wedges 3, 5 the right door wing through the guides-11 and the blocks 12 inward (Figs. 4, 9 and 5, 10). The vertical packings 14 are pressed upon the vertical packings 15 of the left door wing (Fig. 7 whereby the door is pressed together at the middle. At the same time the horizontal packings 17 of the door wing press upon the horizontal packings 10 of the door frame (Figs. 9, 10) so that the door is securely and tightly packed along all its edges.

For opening the door the lateral latching is unlocked by pulling back the pushing wedges 4. The packings push by their elasticity the door wings partly together towards the middle andthe gravity of the door wings-these door wings being 'free to give way for ashort distance under the action of the gravity' owing to the acute angled bolt guiding of the hinge 13,#-eli'ect the remaining unlocking work.

The latching rod 1 is held in the latching position and in the unlatching position, in known manner by a nose on said rod 1, said nose engaging under a hinged bow if the latching rod isin the latching position and engages over said hingedl bow if the latching rod is in the unlatching position.

The door is thus The hinged bow is fixed on the right door wing and it engages with an eye on the left door wing said eye being capable to be latched by a bolt and to he secured against unauthorized opening by a lead seal.

I claim 1. A device for latching doors heat-tightly or air-tightly, comprising in combination a latching rod shiftable in longitudinal direCt'ion, pushing wedges on said latching rod, pushing means fixed on each door wing in the range of action of said pushing wedges, hinges of oval cross section on the door wings the oval of all hinges being inclined at the same acute angle towards the door plane, and a hand lever for lowerin or raising said latchin rod said pus 'ing wedges acting at the owering of the latching rod upon said pushing means von the door -wings so that the door wings. are pressed towards the hinges the packing surface of the door being thus enlarged, the sideward push of each door wing being transformed by the oval guiding in the 'hinges into a lateral push and into a transverse push.

2. A device for latching doors heat-tightly or air-tightly, comprising in combinat1on a latching rod shiftable in longitudinal direction and having a slot near the upper end and a slot near the lower end, pushing wedges'on said latching rod, pushing means fixed on each door wing in the range of action of said pushing wedges, and a hand lever for lowering or raising said latching rod said pushing wedges acting at the lowering of the latching rod upon said pushing means on the door wings soy that the door wings are pressed toward the hinges the packing surface of the door being thus enlarged, 'a latching block fixed on the upper part of the door frame, a latching block xed on the lower part of the door frame, and a guide rotatably mounted on each latching block and engaging with the corresponding slot of said latching rod so that they take the rod alongwithout friction.

In testimony whereof I allix my signature l f ALI-RED CARL FRIEDRICH RA'I'HKE 

